Germany’s investment in research and development (R&D) has increased significantly in 2023, but other European countries have made even more progress, according to new EU statistics reported by the “Handelsblatt”.
“In relative terms, we’re falling back in the European competition” said Christian Rammer, an innovation expert at the Center for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim. Countries like Spain, Sweden, Finland, and Austria have made a significant jump.
Specifically, the German R&D expenditure of the state and the economy rose in 2023 to 3.11% of the gross domestic product, according to the first trend data from the Foundation.
“While Germany has just reached the pre-Corona level, various EU countries are already well above that” Rammer added. This is “all the more regrettable, as top-innovative countries like the US, Japan, and Israel have continued to increase their efforts in the past few years”.